From the August Newsletter

Dear Richard

My family wants me to take vitamins, lots of them. Every time someone reads an article about this or that vitamin, they want me to go out and buy some. What vitamins do you take? What to do you think about taking vitamins when your cognitive skills are slipping?

Dwight E.
Denison, TX

Hello

So much to worry about. So little time to worry. I too sometimes feel bombarded by well meaning friends who want me to start taking more, usually much more of this or that. Remembering that I am not a physician nor do I think I am a nutritionist…I’m just a person who wants to ingest the right things to help me live a longer and “better” life…this is what I think and believe about all the hoopla about neutraceuticals, vitamins, drinks, colon cleansers, and hand washing.

Neutraceuticals are usually composed of over the counter something(s) combined into a drink or pill or something you sprinkle on your morning breakfast cereal. The FDA is just starting to think to look at these. As they stand now they tend to be much more expensive than the sum cost of their over the counter/grocery store/organic farm ingredients. And remember all their claims are tempered by the small print warning that the FDA has substantiated none of the claims they make. Think what you like about the FDA, but they are the best we have going for us right now.

And now here comes vitamin D. When I was younger vitamin C came, then it was vitamin E, then a swarm of B’s showed up. Recently fish oil raised its stinky head.
The appeal of Colon cleaners/cleansers/scrubbers seems based upon a myth that what we eat stays inside of us for a long, long, long time and we ought to ream out the pipes every so often. Fiber pills, vegetables, and a nice house salad with a lot of thousand island dressing on it are also achieve the same goal at much less cost. And the last thing our sensitive intestines need is to be reamed out.

I just don’t have the time, the mental energy, the memory space, nor the long-term interest I once had in these “hot” vitamin of the month issues. I’m sure having a deficiency of any one of these is bad, sometimes really bad. But how much is enough? How much is too much?
What to do about all these “keys” to longer life, strong bones, fewer heart attacks and strokes, sharper cognitive skills, and a better sex life?

I’ll continue to take my generic “one-a-day” and let younger minds and bodies worry about trace elements and nano particles, rocks and minerals, auras and vibes, shark marrow and finely ground rhinoceros horn, etc.

Richard